Hot Hydration

Sticking with the summer theme, let’s talk about water. Not to be climate chauvinists, but in this country it’s now summer pretty much everywhere, and imbibing sufficient water is a high priority, or should be.

A brand new, hot-off-the-presses study from the University of Michigan’s Department of Family Medicine reconfirms the importance of water in pushing back against obesity. For Medscape.com, Marcia Frellick writes:

Researchers have found a significant association between inadequate hydration and both elevated body mass index (BMI) and obesity, even after controlling for confounders…

If obese people are not hydrating properly or are eating when they think they are hungry, but are actually thirsty, education may help differentiate the cues…

People with higher BMIs need a lot of water, because the body’s need for hydration is connected to weight, surface area, and metabolic rate. This report includes the shocking news that weight management guidelines handed out by primary care physicians are usually silent on the subject of adequate hydration.

Dr. Pretlow’s book, Overweight: What Kids Say, contains samples of how kids support each other with advice and empathy. A lot of the young folks who successfully battle obesity mention the importance of drinking plenty of water. On the crudest, most obvious level, it can create the illusion of a full stomach. Some of the kids even recommend drinking only water — which is good advice for everyone of any age.

Water weight

The search for health often provokes perplexing questions about seemingly contradictory principles. Over and over, we hear about the importance of hydration. On the other hand, we have also heard of “water weight” — and we dread it.

A person might retain 20 (or more) pounds of unnecessary water. Fitness expert Mark Sisson explains that carbohydrate is stored in the body as glycogen, and along with every gram of stored glycogen, the body stores three or four grams of water — both in and amongst cells.

A low-carbohydrate diet may produce immediate weight loss, but it will be the water saying goodbye. Sisson says:

[…] Often within just a week of decreasing grains and other simple carbs and sugars, as well as cutting omega 6s and the huge amounts of sodium found in the Standard American Diet, the body no longer needs to hoard all this water. Understand that this was water you never really needed in the first place; it was just there because agents in the diet sent signals to different systems to hold onto it.

In one post, we named water as an obesity villain — but that is only a figure of speech. Sometimes water is polluted with toxins — but that isn’t the water’s fault. Generally, some agency, corporation, or individual is responsible. When the lack of decent drinking water drives people to make do with sugar-sweetened beverages, that isn’t the water’s fault, either.

Even where the tap water is undrinkable, most people have the choice of buying water instead of SSBs. Americans are fortunate to live, by and large, in places where drinking water is available for free. Many people all over the world don’t even have the luxury of asking these questions or entering the debate; or any hope of influencing their governments to step up and make things better.

Indirect influence on obesity

Inadequate hydration can affect mental and emotional health, including attention and memory. It can also cause headaches, unpleasant mood states, and impaired kidney function. All these things make a person feel lousy. What happens to some people when they feel physically, mentally, or emotionally bad? They try to eat the world.

PROFILES: KIDS STRUGGLING WITH WEIGHT

The Book

OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade. You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:

Presentations

Dr. Pretlow's 2017 Workshop on Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model